Classes & Workshops

Nonprofit Leadership Training - Spring 2009

The Compassion Capital Fund Project is sponsoring three spring trainings aimed at increasing your effectiveness in leading your nonprofit agency. These trainings will be especially helpful to the executive director, board chair and members, lead staff, and key volunteers, as well as anyone involved in sustaining the work of a nonprofit organization.

Deborah Talen's workshop is of special interest to pastors and other leaders within faith communities because it addresses the critical issue of building membership and engaging volunteers.

Meetings Management Magic - Leading Effective Meetings

Whether you’re leading a board, committee, staff, or volunteer meeting, minimizing the time spent while maximizing the outcome of those meetings is essential. During this seminar, you’ll learn a variety of practical tips you can immediately begin to use, including:

• Techniques for staying on-track and on-time during meetings
• 4 quick preparation steps to ensure more effective meetings
• How to stimulate discussion among all meeting attendees and guide brainstorming processes
• Using effective meeting tools such as consent agendas, decision-making models, dashboard reports and follow-up action plans
• Managing disruptive meeting attendee behaviors

Presented by Jeanne Murphy, nonprofit growth strategist

Getting Noticed: Marketing & PR Strategies for Your Organization

Attracting funds, volunteers and community partners to help you achieve your mission is an ongoing challenge for nonprofits. Gaining more of all three resources is directly tied to effectively using marketing and PR outreach communications strategies. During this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to:

• Craft a Communications Message that inspires people to get behind your organization
• Focus your Message on outcomes, not outputs, and lives changed, not numbers
• Identify your various target markets (stakeholder groups)
• Adjust your Message to appeal to specific target audiences
• Create a call-to-action that gets people involved
• Understand the tie-in between consistent outreach communications and building your donor base
• Determine how to consistently use your Communications Message in marketing and PR outreach efforts that get you noticed

Presented by Jeanne Murphy, nonprofit growth strategist

Lessons Learned from Megachurches: Building Community and Increasing Membership and Volunteers

Megachurches have become a fixture on the American landscape. Their success in building and maintaining large communities has less to do with doctrine and more to do with effective organizational strategies. Any nonprofit, religious or not, can learn from the techniques megachurches use to successfully strengthen membership and volunteers.

Come hear about simple strategies you can apply to your organization:

• Membership development from the outside in
• Segmenting your market - who is really interested in you?
• Lowering barriers and attracting the crowd
• Member integration: meeting needs and fostering belonging
• Raising expectations of commitment

Presented by Deborah Talen, nonprofit consultant

Jeanne Murphy is a nationally recognized growth strategist, trainer and coach within the nonprofit and credit union sectors. For over 25 years, Jeanne's work in strategic planning, governance, marketing, and fund development has helped nonprofit leaders sharpen their vision and focus their resources to cause positive social change. Jeanne’s professional background includes positions as a nonprofit executive director, faculty member of numerous national and statewide schools, fundraiser, marketing director, and lead trainer in capacity building for a prominent MN foundation. She has served on the board of directors, as well as volunteered, for numerous nonprofits over the years.

Deborah Talen has 25 years experience in organizational development, marketing, and nonprofit management. She has recently returned from Harvard where she researched ways that evangelical megachurches grow and maintain their congregations. Deborah is a social entrepreneur at heart, having founded and directed several membership-based nonprofits. She has also worked as a marketing director and served in leadership in numerous religious and social justice organizations. Deborah has an MBA in Marketing from the Carlson School of Management and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

The Compassion Capital Fund Project is sponsored by the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches through an award by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and with matching support from Fairview Health Services, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, the Otto Bremer Foundation, and the Marbrook Foundation.